Preview our FALL 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
CHARTA
R.A. McBride & Julie Lindow: Left in the Dark
Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres
Text by Katherine Petrin, Melinda Stone, Chi-hui Yang, Rebecca Solnit, Eddie Muller, D. Scott Miller, Liz Keim, Laura Horak, Sergio de la Mora, Elisabeth Houseman, Joshua Grannell, Sam Sharkey.
In our age of Netflix and streaming videos, movie attendance continues its long decline, and cinema-going is becoming ever less of the collective experience Walter Benjamin so memorably described. Throughout the city of San Francisco, however, many theaters built between 1910 and 1950 are still standing, and some even remain in operation, serving as poignant reminders of Hollywood's Golden Age and the social interactions that once came with movie-going. R.A. McBride's lush color photographs--made with film cameras, of course--showcase these temples to celluloid in all their threadbare grandeur. Photographed empty, the buildings' architectural qualities, from rotunda chandeliers and warmly glowing walls to drab lobbies and worn armrests, come to the fore. Essays by scholars and film exhibitors including Rebecca Solnit, Julie Lindow, Eddie Muller, Chi-Hui Yang and Gary Meyer cast light from personal and scholarly perspectives, examining the movie houses' roles as characters in the cultural drama of the city.
"In December 2001, a friend and manager of the Castro at the time told me the theatre was about to undergo a major renovation. It would be empty and I could bring my cameras. I would not be distracted by an audience or the buzz in the air. I brought my medium-format camera to shoot the hard to reach nooks and crannies and rented a fisheye lens to capture the Castro's grandeur…I photographed the removal of the old seats, taking shots every few hours until nothing was left. I squeezed into small spaces to shoot the decaying fire hoses, the torn curtains. I didn't know it then, but I had begun what would become Left in the Dark."
Featured image, Lumiere, theatre two entrance, 2007 by R.A. McBride, is reproduced from Left in the Dark.
FROM THE BOOK
"When people learn about this project, a typical response has been to share a memory of their favorite theatre. This book is intended for that kind of moviegoer, the person who accumulates warm, funny, fond memories of these magical places. The title of this book refers to what has happened to some of these theatres. But it also refers to what happens when the movie begins. The lights go down and, even though we can't clearly see where we are, we know it is somewhere special."
R.A. McBride, excerpted from her Artist's Statement in Left in the Dark.
FORMAT: Pbk, 10 x 8 in. / 168 pgs / 62 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $50 ISBN: 9788881587803 PUBLISHER: Charta AVAILABLE: 9/30/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not available
R.A. McBride & Julie Lindow: Left in the Dark Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres
Published by Charta. Text by Katherine Petrin, Melinda Stone, Chi-hui Yang, Rebecca Solnit, Eddie Muller, D. Scott Miller, Liz Keim, Laura Horak, Sergio de la Mora, Elisabeth Houseman, Joshua Grannell, Sam Sharkey.
In our age of Netflix and streaming videos, movie attendance continues its long decline, and cinema-going is becoming ever less of the collective experience Walter Benjamin so memorably described. Throughout the city of San Francisco, however, many theaters built between 1910 and 1950 are still standing, and some even remain in operation, serving as poignant reminders of Hollywood's Golden Age and the social interactions that once came with movie-going. R.A. McBride's lush color photographs--made with film cameras, of course--showcase these temples to celluloid in all their threadbare grandeur. Photographed empty, the buildings' architectural qualities, from rotunda chandeliers and warmly glowing walls to drab lobbies and worn armrests, come to the fore. Essays by scholars and film exhibitors including Rebecca Solnit, Julie Lindow, Eddie Muller, Chi-Hui Yang and Gary Meyer cast light from personal and scholarly perspectives, examining the movie houses' roles as characters in the cultural drama of the city.
